Susan Gaffney
HUD Inspector General
US Dept of Housing
& Urban Development (HUD)
March 22, 2000

What does this mean?

Trillions
of dollars in "unsupported adjustments" means trillions
of dollars unaccounted for. What's going on? Where is the money?
How could this happen? Where are the checks and balances? How much more
has gone missing? Is this happening in the other government agencies
too? What would happen if a corporation failed to pass an audit like
this? Or a taxpayer? Who is responsible for this? Who can we trust to
fix it? ... see Frequently
Asked Questions and Who's
in Charge? for details.

To the right you will find a running total of the amount of "unsupported
adjustments" used by the Department
of Defense in FY2000 to balance its books. This total is based
on the report of DoD's
inspector general. The
counter runs on a calendar year. It is a simple attempt to demonstrate
the scale of ENRON style accounting in the US government.

Below the runningtotal are a number of different ways we could use this amount
of money. Try clicking on them; you might be surprised to learn what
a difference $1.1 trillion can make.

This must be stopped! Cooked books affect everyone, not just those
directly involved in the US government. The finances of many countries
around the world are dependent on US currency and US Treasury securities.
See Where
is the Collateral?to
connect the dots.